shilala beads

[TripleF]

I concur!! In last month's bombing Shilala sent me some knowing I would have a dier need for proper humidification in my coolers. Boy was he right and boy do the beads work great.....65% all the time!!

[CoopnGA]

Originally Posted by IceChant

Here you go I scanned it for you.

Good looking out

Does anyone know how long you should leave a class of distilled water in the humi with the Shilala/HF Beads. I think this would be a better way of recharging my beads, but I left a cup of water in my humie for a couple of hours before and I couldn't notice a change in the "dryness" of the beads, they still looked white. My RH went up in the humi, it is normally in the 64 to 66 range, by the end of the 2 hours it was at 71.

Can someone tell me if I'm doing it wrong, or if I just need to wait longer.

Here is what I'm working with:
1- 1 oz stick from Shilala
1 - 1/2 pound of HF Beads

[gnukfu]

Well I have 18 ounces of the HCS beads (I think that is what the fine beads are called) in my wine cooler - got them yesterday, put them in with a little pan of water, the humidity was up over 70% within an hour, took the pan out and filled it with my best cigars. It is rock steady at 65% since this morning. The only bad thing was I have this wine cooler stuffed full and I still have enought cigars left over to fill a second wine cooler....guess I'll be picking up another one....

[shilala]

Originally Posted by CoopnGA

Good looking out

Does anyone know how long you should leave a class of distilled water in the humi with the Shilala/HF Beads. I think this would be a better way of recharging my beads, but I left a cup of water in my humie for a couple of hours before and I couldn't notice a change in the "dryness" of the beads, they still looked white. My RH went up in the humi, it is normally in the 64 to 66 range, by the end of the 2 hours it was at 71.

Can someone tell me if I'm doing it wrong, or if I just need to wait longer.

Here is what I'm working with:
1- 1 oz stick from Shilala
1 - 1/2 pound of HF Beads

Hey coop,
On the HCS beads...
The color means nothing. There are no chemicals in them, therefore no color changes.
The very best thing to use in your humi to add a little vapor to the beads is a sponge. Wet it, wring it out good, and sit it on a little dish or cellophane.
The beads won't recharge in a couple hours. The water has to have time to evaporate. You have to be patient.
A glass of water provides very litte surface area for evaporation and will take far longer to work than a sponge.
Rely very heavily on the direction sheet. It's super important.
If you use those directions to maintain your heartfelt beads, it'll extend their useful life dramatically, as well, because the beads won't turn to dust on you as they do when you pour water on them.
If you need to talk to me, my cell is 814-771-0912. Don't be afraid to call.
Good Luck my man!!!
Scott

[CoopnGA]

Scott, Thanks for the help. I didn't have a fresh sponge to work with, so I placed a wide round bowl in the base of my humi, and filed it about an ince deep. This is the most surface area that I could come up with at the moment. The RH is up to 70% only after two hours. I'm going to let it set overnight, hopefully I'll be good to go by then.

Coop

[shilala]

Originally Posted by CoopnGA

Scott, Thanks for the help. I didn't have a fresh sponge to work with, so I placed a wide round bowl in the base of my humi, and filed it about an ince deep. This is the most surface area that I could come up with at the moment. The RH is up to 70% only after two hours. I'm going to let it set overnight, hopefully I'll be good to go by then.

Coop

Hey Coop,
When you take it out in the morning, leave the dish nearby.
You'll need to wait at least a few hours to see if you've done the beads any good.
Maybe leave the water in overnight, take it out in the morning, check the humi after work, then put it back in if necessary. Wait till the following morning and repeat the process as necessary.
After doing this a couple times you'll get a feel for how long it takes.
If you get a chance, stop by the grocery store or something and get one of those little sponges. They work about 70 times better than a pan of water. They move things along really well. You'll be glad you got it.

[nadav]

I just got my beads from shilala and within an hour my humi is at 65%.

[Gryphs62]

Just received my HCM beads...with an extra bag thrown in!!!

Put them in the cooler, just waiting to check the RH% later on!!

Thanks again Scott!

[CigarmanTim]

Where are they sold at? I searched for shilala beads and couldn't find them.

[Gryphs62]

Originally Posted by CigarmanTim

Where are they sold at? I searched for shilala beads and couldn't find them.

Send a pm to Scott (CS name...Shilala)...3 posts up....He will hook you up!

[ritan]

These Shilala beads...ho hum...they are so boring.

They do nothing but sit there keeping everything at 65% RH. Hygrometer never moves. Boring really. What happened to the wild swings in RH we used to gut wrench over? And what to do about all the bottles of PG solution lying around? Might as well just drink up the distilled water, yes?

Sigh, did I say boring?

[shilala]

Did anyone ever have to add a pan of water yet?
I've talked to a few guys who added a pan of water when they didn't need to and I had them take it out, but I've not talked to anyone who has had to readjust the beads yet.
Mine have been going strong for three months, about ten pounds all told, and although I use Hydras for backups, I've never had to fill a Hydra.

The HCM beads work wonderfully at putting water into the air.
I've only been able to do limited testing on how they take water out of the air.
They score a 13.5MRh putting out water at 65%/70F and a 6.5MRh at 65%/70F taking water out of the air, for an average of 10.0MRh.
The less water the beads have in them, the quicker they take water out of the air.
That goes with all the beads I tested.
The "set and forget" beads had a range. If I dried them out, they sucked up water from the air faster. If I loaded them up, they gave up water slower. To balance them out, they really needed to have the right ratio of water, around 11% of their weight, iirc.
I'm babbling.

Oh yeah...
I'm getting real close to being done with every test I can conceivably do.
As soon as the ambient RH gets sustainably higher than 65% here, I have one more battery to do. They're redundant tests. I have to gather real world data to see how closely it matches lab test data.
When that's done, I can launch a website around all this crap.
Then what started as fun and turned into work will be fun again.

[Gryphs62]

I added a small sponge with some distilled to the cooler...just wanted to make sure as they had to travel to Canada...with the hygro at the top of the cooler it was 65% and when I moved it to the bottom, it went up to 68%...Took the sponge out and will check again in the morning!!!

So far so good!!

[fizguy]

Originally Posted by shilala

Oh yeah...
I'm getting real close to being done with every test I can conceivably do.

I have an idea for one but it would involve sacrificing some beads. Put a set number of beads in a fixed amount of water at known temperature and measure the change in temperature. Then compare to the expected temperature change based on the mechanism involved. This would help to verify the "how is the heat produced" question that you and I have been discussing.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by fizguy

I have an idea for one but it would involve sacrificing some beads. Put a set number of beads in a fixed amount of water at known temperature and measure the change in temperature. Then compare to the expected temperature change based on the mechanism involved. This would help to verify the "how is the heat produced" question that you and I have been discussing.

The only problem is that there are no numbers on "the expected temperature based on the mechanism involved".
That data doesn't exist because no one needs it for any application that I'm aware of.
What I can tell you is that the last batch I made up, I preconditioned in a great big stainless steel pot.
I weighed the bead volume, calculated the amount of water that I guessed would bring me to 65%, and made an incredible amount of steam and heat.
It was 40 degrees out and I was afraid the pan was going to burn the picnic table, but it didn't.
In the end, the beads ended up at 85%, so my calculations worked pretty good. Far better than I had expected.
I pulled those calculations out of my ass based on the values I got from tests, and felt that I may be a little bit high on water weight. I thought I should adjust downwards a bit, but didn't because I was tired with the numbers and just wanted to get on with it.
When I recalculated, I found that I was off by 2%, and that can easily be accounted for by all the steam I lost.
So I was pretty stoked about the results.
Showed me my numbers weren't all for naught.

So the answer to "how much heat?" is "A LOT".
I can accept that.
Or I could build a dessicator box, pump the beads down to 30"hg, purge with nitrogen and repeat 10 times, to get them to 0%RH in order to come up with a btu/lb value that's of no use to me.
I'm just not willing to do the legwork.
Last thing...
You wouldn't be sacrificing any beads. HCM beads laugh at water.
It's HCS beads that explode in water, much the same as the "set and forget" beads.